About the International Marxist-Humanist Organization

The International Marxist-Humanist Organization (IMHO) aims to develop and project a viable vision of an alternative to capitalism—a new, human society— that can give direction to today’s freedom struggles. The IMHO is based on the unique philosophic contributions that have guided Marxist-Humanism since it was founded in the 1950s by Raya Dunayevskaya. We do so by working out a unity of theory and practice, worker and intellectual, and philosophy and organization.

Announcements

We announce the Spanish translation of Raya Dunayevskaya, The Power of Negativity, edited by Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson. Apparently misinformed by the US-based copyrightholders of Dunayevskaya’s writings, Editorial Biblos in Argentina has regrettably left out the fact that these writings by Dunayevskaya were selected, edited, and annotated by Hudis and Anderson.

This represents a serious distortion of the historical record, not only because it fails to identify those who edited the book but also because it gives the false impression that it was compiled by Dunayevskaya herself, which is not the case; the first English edition was published 15 years after her death.

We are pleased to make available to our readers the electronic version of the Arabic translation of Raya Dunayevskaya’s Marxism and Freedom, published in 2010 with the support of the Victor Serge Foundation — Editors

Featured Articles

Summary: Open misogyny, Islamophobia, and especially the attack on aspects of neoliberalism distinguish Trump from previous US conservatives who have played to racism and nativism. This calls for a rethinking even by those on the Left who have targeted class and neoliberalism — Editors

Summary: The freedom movements in the U.S., and indeed around the world, have been dealt a tremendous blow with the election of Donald Trump as President of the U.S. As we absorb the significance of this development and prepare to respond to it on the basis of firm Marxist-Humanist principles, there are several points that I think may be worthwhile to keep in mind — Editors

Summary: Trump’s authoritarianism might be similar to what we have seen in emerging economies such as Russia and China during the past 25 years. Originally appeared in Alliance of Syrian and Iranian Socialists — Editors

Summary: The background to the soft coup d’état wherein reactionary neoliberal forces overthrew the elected Workers’ Party government without resorting to the military is part of a pattern in Latin America; analyzes the last 60 years of Brazilian national life, laying bare the contradictions of bourgeois democracy, and pointing toward the revolutionary unrest that is sure to emerge in the long run — Editors

Summary: A student activist contrasts the anti-capitalist writings of Naomi Klein and Joel Kovel by discussing the roots of environmental destruction in the drive for capital accumulation, also exploring the need for an eco-socialist alternative — Editors

Summary: On the danger represented by the racist, sexist, anti-immigrant Donald Trump, how economic hardship is driving some white workers toward him, and the need for a total uprooting of the system (1100w) – Editors

Summary: A review of Gareth Stedman Jones, Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion (Harvard, 2016), a well-researched biography that utilizes the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA). But its dismissive treatment of Marx’s critique of political economy and of his late writings on non-Western and precapitalist societies shows the book’s shortcomings, as Stedman Jones limits Marx’s legacy to the 19th century without discovering its power for today amid the global crisis of capitalism (2500w) — Editors

Summary: Neither the old hierarchical organizational model nor the spontaneous self-organization one have found a form of philosophy and organization that can bring us to a positive, humanist alternative to the system. Based on a speech to the July 2016 Convention of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization, Chicago; first published in Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture, Summer 2016 (5200w) — Editors

Summary: A powerful effort to prevent the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline has mobilized large sections of the Native American communities and supporters. Now is the time to make your voice heard in solidarity with this important movement (2000w) — Editors

Summary: The following review of Peter Hudis’s book Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2013) appeared in the German leftist periodical Sopos, here http://www.internationalmarxisthumanist.org/review/simon-birnbaum-marxsche-alternative-zum-kapitalismus-sopos-dec-2015 in December 2015. Many thanks to Manuela Kölke for the English translation (1900w) — Editors

Summary: New developments in today’s Middle East underline the importance of overcoming outdated notions of imperialism that fail to identify the multiple actors on the world stage that are responsible for war, exploitation and imperialist intervention.Originally appeared on the website of the Alliance of Syrian and Iranian Socialists, Aug. 25, 2016 (2800w) — Editors

Summary: Discusses the recent sending of political prisoner Khalfani M. Khaldun to solidarity confinement by prisconcrats attempting to silence the voice of this important thinker and activist. – Editors

Summary: Excerpt of a speech to the International Marxist-Humanist Organization Convention, Chicago, July 2-3, 2016. It addresses, with particular attention to Latin America and to Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Program, the urgent need to develop a viable alternative to capitalism that goes beyond critiques of neo-liberalism and beyond calls for a more “equitable” distribution of surplus value — Editors

Summary: The economic and political crisis of Africa today — especially in Angola, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Africa — is connected to ruthless exploitation by Euro-US and Middle Eastern capital, to the rise of fundmentalism, and to the migrant crisis in Europe — Editors

Summary: On David Black’s edition of Helen Macfarlane’s writings, an insufficiently appreciated figure in the history of socialist humanism, whose unique vision was expounded in a largely unknown oeuvre during the 1850s. Originally published in Critical Research on Religion 4:2 (2016) (1500w) — Editors

Summary: The materialist explanation of racism provides anti-racist activists with a powerful conceptual tool that demystifies racial thought and exposes unequal production relations hidden behind the idea of race. Referring to Oliver C. Cox, CLR James, and Raya Dunayevskaya, the author concludes that there are no hierarchies concerning which struggle is the most important, and that thingification of human relations is the prerequisite for race prejudice — Editors

Summary: Escalating political repression in Morocco under the rule of King Mohammed VI makes this a crucial moment to solidarize with human rights activists and freedom fighters being targeted by the government, which includes the author, Maati Monjib — Editors

Summary: This article explores Raya Dunayevskaya and Herbert Marcuse’s humanism and dialectics, arguing in favour of the former’s open and negative conception of dialectical possibilities. A slightly different version appeared in Thesis Eleven No. 134 (2016) — Editors

Summary: The new expanded edition of Brecher’s Strike! is a monumental contribution to labor history. This review discusses the book’s revolutionary qualities, while also questioning its treatment of the IWW and most importantly, of the intersectionality of race and class — Editors

Summary: This statement on the current situation was drafted on March 27 in preparation for our international gathering this summer. Because it covers a wide range of issues pertinent to the global revolutionary movement, we have decided to make it public now — Editors

Latest Articles

Summary: Explores the life and work of Helen Macfarlane, early translator of the Communist Manifesto, labor activist, and radical journalist, who almost disappeared from the historical record until recently — Editors

Summary: Critical review of the recent BBC documentary on Marx, with particular attention to the flawed depiction of his later years as ones of bourgeois respectability. Link to broadcast is HERE — Editors

Summary: This lecture by Hudis on his 2015 book, Frantz Fanon, Philosopher of the Barricades, was presented to a March 13, 2016 meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization at the Westside Peace Center (60 minutes), here: part 1 of 2 and part 2 of 2 — Editors

Summary: Islamophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria in the U.S. are compared to George Wallace’s racist candidacy of the 1960s, and to the rise of Nazism. Today’s Trump campaign is taking place in an era of economic decline, however — Editors

Keep in Touch with the International Marxist-Humanist

Send us a request to join our mailing list. Please include your location so we can let you know about events in your area. You can also contact us using our email arise@internationalmarxisthumanist.org or use the form on our Contact Page.

We are linking to the online version of the Raya Dunayevskaya Collection, which makes her germinal writings more widely available than before. (Her books have long been on our Literature Pages.) From time to time, we will be running commentaries with links to these online texts, whether on Marxism and dialectics, or on an array of other issues related to today’s myriad struggles for human emancipation and their contradictions. Read More…